Conservative American Congressman Phil English is among a growing number of Republicans betting their political future on a retreat from George W. Bush's plans to turn things around in Iraq. WASHINGTON -- Like many other Republicans in Congress right now, Rep. Phil English has no good options. His northern Pennsylvania district, home to a small but vibrant peace movement, has become increasingly disillusioned with President Bush's war in Iraq. At the same time, English's conservative base sees betrayal in anything short of full support for the war effort. "There is a level of polarization out there that makes any thoughtful discussion of nuanced differences very difficult," said English, a longtime GOP activist first elected with the Newt Gingrich revolution in 1994, during a recent interview in his Capitol Hill office. "The Republican base, which is substantial in my district, does not distinguish between criticizing the administration on tactics and butting heads ... http://www.spiegel.de

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a small band of warrior-intellectuals -- including a quirky Australian anthropologist, a Princeton economist who is the son of a former U.S. attorney general and a military expert on the Vietnam War sharply critical of its top commanders -- in an eleventh-hour effort to reverse the downward trend in the Iraq war. Army officers tend to refer to the group as "Petraeus guys." They are smart colonels who have been noticed by Petraeus, and who make up one of the most selective clubs in the world: military officers with doctorates from top-flight universities and combat experience in Iraq. Essentially, the Army is turning the war over to its dissidents, who have criticized the way the service has operated there the past three years, and is letting them try to wage the war their way. "Their role is crucial if we are to reverse the effects of four years of conventional mind-set fighting an unconventional war," ...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/04/AR2007020401196.html

Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone", the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq. It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG), and it has proved to be one of the Coalition's most effective and deadly weapons in the fight against terror. Its members - servicemen and women of all ranks recruited from all three of the Armed Forces - are trained to turn hardened terrorists into coalition spies using methods developed on the mean streets of Ulster during the Troubles, when the Army managed to infiltrate the IRA at almost every level. Since war broke out in Iraq in 2003, they have been responsible for running dozens of Iraqi double agents....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/04/nspooks04.xml

U.S. military officers offered their condolences on Monday to an Iraqi family south of Baghdad in a rare admission of error after killing two innocent Iraqis in an airstrike last Tuesday. A U.S. military statement released on January 31 said two "insurgents" out of a four-man team were killed as they were trying to plant a roadside bomb in the town of Mahmudiya. Calling the incident a "tragic accident," the officers on Monday handed out $2,500 to the family for each man killed. A small group of U.S. officers, accompanied by an Iraqi officer and Mahmudiya's mayor, entered a tent with their weapons where mourners gathered to pay respect to the victims, shaking hands with tribesman and drinking hot coffee. After one of the tribesmen lectured the Americans on their "many mistakes," Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Morschauser apologized to the gathering....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020500394.html

A college student who was thrown in jail only hours after reporting she was raped praised Tampa police Monday for quickly changing their policy, in her first public comments about her ordeal. But her attorney lashed out at county jail officials who said a communication breakdown not a nurse's religious beliefs, as the student claimed was the reason the woman did not get an emergency birth control pill. The woman, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because she reported being the victim of a sex crime, lauded police for giving officers more discretion on when to make an arrest if a felony warrant is found for a victim of physical or mental trauma. "I appreciate their willingness to try to rectify the situation so that what happened to me will not happen to anyone else," she said during a brief appearance outside her attorney's office. She did not answer questions or discuss the alleged attack. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2851603

The trial in Vancouver, Canada, of alleged serial killer Robert Pickton has been watching a key videotape made secretly in his jail cell. The police video shows pig farmer Robert Pickton in conversation with an undercover officer in the cell after he was arrested for two murders. Mr Pickton tells the undercover officer he has been "set up" for 50 murders. The 57-year-old has been charged with 26 murders but is initially being tried for six. He has pleaded not guilty. Most of the women Mr Pickton is accused of murdering were prostitutes and drug addicts who disappeared from Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside during the 1990s. 'Nailed to the cross' The videotape was made after Mr Pickton was arrested on 22 February 2002 in connection with two of the murders. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6333811.stm